Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Sorry I haven't posted in a LONG time.

So over the next week or so I will try to update everything that has gone on in the last 2 years A lot has happened in that time. I apologize to those who have been following and need to know they are not alone in their journey thru this. Lately I feel God has put it on my heart to start this up and update and keep this going for those of you out there going thru the same thing as I did. I have had a few people of late comment and that has made me want to keep this going. I will try to fill in the last two years as best I can. I look forward to hearing all you comments and I will try to respond as I always have. So we go back to May of 2011 I was working at Starbucks and thing were going well for awhile till the pain in my neck started to effect my work. I was unable to continue PT as I was out of visits for the year already and the denied my request for more. I had gone to my pain doctor to try to find an alternative to treat the pain and help with my fingers going numb all the time. The only thing at that time we could do was continue pain meds I was taking morphine twice a day as well as oxycodone 3-4 times a day as well. The pain was starting to get worse. It got to the point that I ended up having to go on disability from work. I was not happy but I did get some pay from the benefits I had at the time. When I went back to pain doc again we sat down and talked about other ideas to try and this is when i found a brochure for a spinal cord stimulator. He said before I could do anything like that we had to exhaust all other remedies first. In other words to get the insurance to pay for it we had to show that the other ways were not working. This was now getting to be mid August 2011. In September I had my first epidural injection into the epidural space in my spine. This almost hurt more than the pain I had every day. It was horrible. After the procedure though my pain subsided for about three weeks. It felt amazing. I didn't hurt nearly as bad as I had for so long I was very happy with it, even though it hurt like hell. Through all of this time as well I was going to see a therapist as well to help with my depression. It was helping a little but then I started to have night terrors and would scream in my sleep. I couldn't sleep well and some nights not at all. The doc suggested a sleep aide to help as well as another med which I cant remember the name of for the night terrors. This did help me sleep but it knocked me out for 10-12 hrs a night. This combined with the pain meds was not a good combo. I was like a zombie most days. I was there but not there. By Sept I all of the sudden had all of pain come rushing back overnight. The epidural injection wore off almost instantly. So back to the doctor office again. the injections had to be a series of three. So I had to go thru the pain of on again. But I was ok with it because it would be worth it to be almost pain free for another few weeks. But this one didn't work at all. So he had me come back for the third on about a week later. Again this one failed as well. Not sure why but I got absolutely no relief from either of them at all. This is when we finally able to talk about the stimulator be placed in me.